One of the designers who made it happen

Winner
- Kate Davies

I was looking for a logo for my band and Kate was extremely responsive to my feedback, immaculately professional, and she presented a very creative and original logo. I didn't want it to look too slick and she perfectly captured what I was going for -- even listening to my music to understand the vibe better. Highly recommended!

- pecoae

How Usami started their logo design journey

Company name

Bentos / 本托斯

Overview

I have been living and working in Beijing for ten years and now am looking to kick off my own venture. I come from a very diverse background, I am half Japanese half Scottish, but I have spent most of my life living in Asia.

This venture is an food & beverage project, however the aim is NOT just to open one restaurant in Beijing... I am looking to develop a brand name and roll-out this concept in major cities across China's eastern coast.

The brand will be huge in this project and it will pose as the identity of the business that will hopefully make its way through Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Suzhou... and more if all goes well...

The culture of this brand will be very international... even though I will be rolling this venture out in China and a large proportion of our audience will be local Chinese, there are also a large number of international expats living here and this concept will also be targeting them. And as with many things in China, the local market follow international trends, therefore I want this brand to have strong local and international elements...

The key for me is that the BRAND is recognizable and people will feel that they already know it upon roll-out...

It really needs to be catchy as hell... to both Chinese and Foreigners alike...

I can't wait to see where you guys take this and really want to see designs from all angles...

Good Luck...

Tell us a bit about who you are and the people you reach

Firstly I am targeting lunch time business...

The target audience will be emerging middle class Chinese and expats living in China working for large multinational companies. They will be people looking to grab a quick bite for lunch, either through pick up at our retail outlets, or delivered straight to their office...

We will be targeting people that want to eat healthy, people that don't want the hassles of ordering, people that want to know they are getting the same thing day in and day out... People who want goodness straight out of a BENTO box...

All the outlets will be located in high-end office buildings. I'll be looking to compete with the likes of Starbucks and Subway... both incredibly strong brands but have serious deficiencies offering tasty food...

The people that I need to be enticed to the BRAND are people that can order my Japanese Bento boxes everyday of the week...

Requirements

The only requirement that I have is that the brand has both the English 'BENTOS', and the Chinese '本托斯'. The Chinese may change in the coming weeks, but will most likely be three Chinese characters.

There will also be a sub-line that will be included but I have yet to finalize this. But to give you an idea, it will be on the lines of,

"Bentos - Tasty Japanese Meals in a Box"

DO NOT INCLUDE THE TAG LINE JUST YET, BUT DESIGN A LOGO THAT CAN HAVE A TAG LINE ON THE SIDE OR UNDERNEATH.

And the sub-line will also have Chinese...

This BRAND will be the life of the business so I want something that is super catchy and something that also has timely qualities...

Simplicity generally rules in these businesses and tends to be my preference. But I am very open at this stage on how you go with this, and I look forward to seeing a wide range of ideas and directions with this.

IN terms of striking a balance with the English and Chinese, I still want the English to be the main element of the BRAND, with the Chinese as the translation. I want it to seem as if it is a concept brought in from overseas...

If you are unfamiliar with Japanese Bento boxes, they are essentially a whole Japanese meal in a box. They are ready to eat meals that you would eat straight out of the box cold. All the meals will be pre-prepared branded boxes that customers will either pick up and go, or have delivered. But the main buying point st that the meals are healthy, tasty, convenient, and affordable.